Where To Find Your Adoption Records
My adoptive parents are great people and great parents. They raised me well and they have always given me everything I needed. They taught me what good values and helped me on the way to living a good life. So understandably they were surprised when I wanted to search adoption records to find my birth parents were. You see, most people are aware that adopted kids have issues, but few people understand how many issues adoptive parents have as well. In my family which I imagine is the same with most families, I think that my parents are more afraid of me rejecting them than I am of them rejecting me. Needless to say, the adoption records search was not an easy thing to do.
Just like me for a lot of adopted kids, searching adoption records is almost a rite of passage. I think it has something to do with the power of secrets. If you don't know where you come from, it holds a certain kind of mysterious power over you. If you can find adoption records, however, suddenly that power is diffused. Even if you don't like your birth parents, it really doesn't matter that much. Just having met them and solved the mystery has a sort of healing effect.
The state does not always make it easy for you to find adoption records.
Adoption court records are often sealed until the kids reach 18, both for the protection of the adopted children and the parents. Once you become an adult, it can still be pretty tough tracking down your parents. If they have moved, changed their names, or just disappeared off the grid you will never find them. Parents who put children up for adoption are not, as a rule, the most reliable people in the world. A lot of people feel guilt about the decision and so they just don't want to be found.
When I started searching it took me about two years doing adoption record searches. It was a pretty powerful moment for me,when I finaly tracked them down and I was nervous to say the least. When we met, however, we got along well. Not extremely well, but well. It was cordial and friendly, but they don't really feel like my parents. My birth parents are my acquaintances and nothing more. And I am glad to have atleast solved this mystery in my life.
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